Road Schooling - Day 1

With the world gripped in theCovad-19 virus outbreak and two of our grandkids on a 6 week school closure, we decided to use our Washington State Parks Senior Winter Pass and go on a week long camping trip in Tracer, our new travel trailer.  This would be our grandkids first trip in it and our second outing.  They have assignments from school plus Angela, being a teacher, planned our days to incorporate hands on learning at the Park.  Now the only question would be: Would there be cell service at the Park?

Our pass provides free camping at Washington State Parks except for a $10/night fee for electrical and water hookups.  We decided to try out Cape Disappointment State Park outside of Ilwaco because of its proximity to Lewis & Clark historical sites.  This Park is about 160 miles from home and located in the extreme SW corner of our State. So I found site #64 which has power and water hookups and made an online reservation.  Six nights cost us $68 ($10/night utility fee plus an $8 online reservation fee).  Without the pass, the fee would be $308.

Life has been pretty busy for me recently with church responsibilities and dealing with a cruise cancellation due to the virus. Compounding this I had a deacons' meeting on a Sunday morning because of cancellation of our Sunday services due to the virus outbreak.  I was able to pick up our grandkids and their gear, gas up the truck and get home around 12:30pm.  I quickly packed and then did the final trailer preparations.  I hope I remembered everything.

We left our house around 2:30pm and headed south before stopping at a McD's in south Tacoma for some sustenances.  It was then a pleasant drive south on I-5 to Olympia, west on US-101 and Wa-8 to Montesano, south again on WA-107 and US-101 through Raymond and South Bend. It was a cold but sunny day, and the kiddos were quite engaged with the sights particularly after Raymond with its many steel sculptures and the rugged and twisted coastline.  We also engaged them with following the mile marker signs.  We did have to slow once for a pair of black tail deer.  And along the way, we all composed a song to the tune of John Denver's 'Almost Heaven, West Virginia.'  We found it much easier to converse traveling in our crew cab pickup than in the motor home we've traveled in the last few years.

At Ilwaco, I went in search of a gas station, but none were to be found, so we headed for our campsite and we'd have to head back tomorrow to the Long Beach area for fuel.  That worked out to be okay as there is no cell service here, so we'll need to spend some time in town each day so our granddaughter can do her required online lessons.  Arriving at our campsite around 6:30pm, it was nicely blocked with an orange cone and a blue PP sign (prepaid).  There are a few other campers in our circle plus a number of unoccupied  yurts.  Since the office was closed we'll formally check in tomorrow to get a identification hanger for the truck so we can park elsewhere in the park while exploring.

I backed into our spot, and Katie took responsibility for cranking down our stabilizer jacks while I attended to the power and water connections and miscellaneous set up matters.  Angela took care of the inside setup.  It's a nice site with a picnic table in a treed area (not a lot of privacy), and is pretty close to the ocean. There's a nearby restroom with free warm showers.  We'll begin exploring more tomorrow.

With darkness upon us, Angela heated some leftovers for us, while the kids only wanted cheese and crackers and fruit.  I scanned the airwaves and found about 6 channels of over the air TV including an ABC station out of Portland, Oregon so we were able to watch American Idol.  Having a TV while camping is a new experience for us, but we're finding short doses to be relaxing.  Since the kiddos had been so nice we allowed them to stay up later and watch the show with us.  Surprisingly, they elected to sleep on the top bunk together in separate sleeping bags as opposed to separate bunks.  We also elected to go to bed early at 10pm.  So we made up the Murphy bed, and crawled under the cozy layers of covers.  It's supposed to drop to 35° overnight, but we have our propane furnace maintaining the trailer at 65° overnight.

I leave this post with a few pictures of our campsite.  More memories are being made.